2008 U.S. Open (golf)


The 2008 United States Open Championship was the 108th U.S. Open, played June 12–16 at Torrey Pines in San Diego, California. Tiger Woods won his third U.S. Open and 14th major title, defeating Rocco Mediate on the first hole of sudden-death, following an 18-hole With this victory, Woods joined Jack Nicklaus as the only two players to win the career grand slam three times. The U.S. Open was held at the Torrey Pines for the first time, on its South Course.
It was an unlikely victory for Woods, who entered the tournament considerably short of match practice and was plagued throughout the week by an ailing left knee. Two days after the championship, Woods revealed that he would miss the remainder of the 2008 season after undergoing knee surgery; this was his last win in a major championship until the 2019 Masters.
This was the final 18-hole playoff at the U.S. Open. A two-hole aggregate playoff was introduced by the United States Golf Association

Field

About half the field each year consists of players who are fully exempt from qualifying for the U.S. Open. Below is the list of the 72 players that were fully exempt for the 2008 U.S. Open. Each player is classified according to the first category by which he qualified, but other categories are shown in parentheses:
;1. Last 10 U.S. Open Champions
Ángel Cabrera, Michael Campbell, Jim Furyk, Retief Goosen, Lee Janzen, Geoff Ogilvy, Tiger Woods
;2. Top two finishers in the 2007 U.S. Amateur
Michael Thompson
;3. Last five Masters Champions
Trevor Immelman, Zach Johnson, Phil Mickelson
;4. Last five British Open Champions
Ben Curtis, Todd Hamilton, Pádraig Harrington
;5. Last five PGA Champions
Vijay Singh
;6. The Players Champion
Sergio García
;7. The U.S. Senior Open Champion
Brad Bryant
;8. Top 15 finishers and ties in the 2007 U.S. Open
Stephen Ames, Aaron Baddeley, Paul Casey, Nick Dougherty, Niclas Fasth, Jerry Kelly, Hunter Mahan, Justin Rose, Steve Stricker, David Toms, Scott Verplank, Bubba Watson
;9. Top 30 leaders on the 2007 PGA Tour
Robert Allenby, Woody Austin, Mark Calcavecchia, K. J. Choi, Stewart Cink, Tim Clark, Luke Donald, Ernie Els, Steve Flesch, Charles Howell III, John Rollins, Rory Sabbatini, Adam Scott, Heath Slocum, Brandt Snedeker, Boo Weekley
;10. All players qualifying for the 2007 edition of The Tour Championship
Jonathan Byrd, Camilo Villegas
;11. Top 15 on the 2007 European Tour
Søren Hansen, Colin Montgomerie, Andrés Romero, Henrik Stenson, Richard Sterne, Lee Westwood
;12. Top 10 on the PGA Tour official money list, as of May 26
Ryuji Imada, Anthony Kim, Jeff Quinney
;13. Winners of multiple PGA Tour events from April 25, 2007 through June 1, 2008
Daniel Chopra
;14. Top 2 from the 2008 European Tour Order of Merit, as of May 26
Miguel Ángel Jiménez, Oliver Wilson
;15. Top 2 on the 2007 Japan Golf Tour , provided they are within the top 75 point leaders of the Official World Golf Rankings at that time
Shingo Katayama, Toru Taniguchi
;16. Top 2 on the 2007 PGA Tour of Australasia , provided they are within the top 75 point leaders of the Official World Golf Rankings at that time
;17. Top 50 on the Official World Golf Rankings list, as of May 26
Stuart Appleby, J. B. Holmes, Robert Karlsson, Martin Kaymer, Justin Leonard, Rod Pampling, Ian Poulter, Mike Weir
;18. Special exemptions selected by the USGA
None''
;Sectional qualifiers
;Alternates who gained entry
denotes amateur

denotes player advanced through local qualifying

Past champions in the field

Made the cut

Missed the cut

Nationalities in the field

Course layout

South Course
Hole123456789Out101112131415161718InTotal
Yards4483891954884535154611776123,7384142215046144354782254415733,9057,643
Par443444435354345443453671

Source:

Round summaries

The U.S. Open is played over four days with an 18-hole round being played each day, for a total of 72 holes plus practice rounds. Players outside the top 60 and ties and outside ten strokes of the leader will be "cut" after 36 holes.

First round

Thursday, June 12, 2008
The leaders after the first round were two little-known American players, Justin Hicks, a 33-year-old Nationwide Tour player, and Kevin Streelman, a 29-year-old PGA Tour rookie. They both shot 3 under-par 68s to lead four other players at 69, including the 2006 champion, Geoff Ogilvy. The top three ranked players in the world were paired together for the first two rounds, but none of them broke par for the day: Woods 72, Phil Mickelson 71, Adam Scott 73. Woods was playing his first event since the Masters, after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery, and Scott was playing with a broken little finger on his right hand. The World Golf Rankings were also used for three other pairings, making four pairings include the top 12 golfers in the world. Defending champion Ángel Cabrera shot 79. Mark Calcavecchia withdrew after playing nine holes with an injured knee and foot. In all, 11 players shot sub-par rounds and the scoring average was 75.58.
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo par
T1Justin Hicks68−3
T1Kevin Streelman68−3
T3Stuart Appleby69−2
T3Eric Axley69−2
T3Rocco Mediate69−2
T3Geoff Ogilvy69−2
T7Robert Allenby70−1
T7Ernie Els70−1
T7Rickie Fowler 70−1
T7Robert Karlsson70−1
T7Lee Westwood70−1

Second round

Friday, June 13, 2008
The first round co-leaders both fell well down the leaderboard: Justin Hicks shot an 80 to drop to a tie for 49th and Kevin Streelman shot 77 to drop to tied for 22nd. Stuart Appleby carded a 70 to take the lead at 139, one stroke ahead of Robert Karlsson, Mediate, and Woods. Woods shot a 30 on the front nine, one stroke more than the U.S. Open record for nine holes set by Vijay Singh in 2003. Singh made his 14th consecutive cut at the U.S. Open, the longest current streak. Miguel Ángel Jiménez shot the low round of the day −5 and moved into a tie for 5th.
The cut was at +7, 10 strokes from the leader, and 80 players made the cut. Defending champion Cabrera shot a 76 for at total of 155 to miss the cut by six shots. Ian Poulter withdrew with a wrist injury after playing 15 holes. Three amateurs made the cut: Derek Fathauer, Michael Thompson, and Rickie Fowler.
In all, 19 players shot sub-par second rounds. The scoring average was 74.96 for round two and 75.27 overall.
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo par
1Stuart Appleby69-70=139−3
T2Robert Karlsson70-70=140−2
T2Rocco Mediate69-71=140−2
T2Tiger Woods72-68=140−2
T5Miguel Ángel Jiménez75-66=141−1
T5Davis Love III72-69=141−1
T5D. J. Trahan72-69=141−1
T5Lee Westwood70-71=141−1
T9Robert Allenby70-72=142E
T9Ernie Els70-72=142E
T9Geoff Ogilvy69-73=142E
T9Carl Pettersson71-71=142E

Amateurs: Fathauer, Thompson, Fowler , Stanley, Taylor, Tway, Cox, Wilson, Henderson, Wolstenholme, Quagliano.

Third round

Saturday, June 14, 2008
Overnight leader Stuart Appleby shot 79 to slip back to T-19 at 218, while playing partner Rocco Mediate shot 72 to finish two strokes behind at 212. Many of the leaders struggled on day three. Karlsson and Jiménez dropped back to 215, Davis Love III to 4 over-par and D. J. Trahan to 1 over-par. Lee Westwood finished at 211 after a round of 70, the only one to shoot par or better in all three rounds. Woods, despite struggling with his knee injury, dazzled on the back nine with some improbable shots, resulting in two eagles and a chip-in birdie from the rough on the 17th to take the 54-hole lead at 210, a stroke ahead of Westwood. Brandt Snedeker shot the low round of the day at 68. In total, 11 players shot sub-par rounds and the scoring average for the round was 74.36 and 75.08 overall.
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo par
1Tiger Woods72-68-70=210−3
2Lee Westwood70-71-70=211−2
3Rocco Mediate69-71-72=212−1
T4Geoff Ogilvy69-73-72=214+1
T4D. J. Trahan72-69-73=214+1
T6Robert Allenby70-72-73=215+2
T6Miguel Ángel Jiménez75-66-74=215+2
T6Robert Karlsson70-70-75=215+2
T6Hunter Mahan72-74-69=215+2
T6Camilo Villegas73-71-71=215+2

Final round

Sunday, June 15, 2008
Woods had previously won each of the thirteen major championships in which he entered the final round with at least a share of the lead, and his fourteenth was no different. He lost his lead on the first hole, double-bogeying the hole for the third time in the tournament, and followed that with a bogey on the second, but regained two of the shots with birdies on 9 and 11. He also bogeyed 13, the same hole on which he had sunk an eagle putt the previous day.
Mediate had put together a solid round, only scoring one bogey over the final 13 holes. However, he barely missed a birdie putt on 17 and hit a wedge too strong on 18; his pars on the two final holes kept both Woods and his playing partner Westwood in contention. Both came to the par-5 final hole one shot behind Mediate, who was in the clubhouse at 283.
Woods and Westwood both hit their drives into bunkers and had to lay up. Woods' second shot went into the rough; Westwood laid up in the fairway. Both reached the green with their third shots, leaving them with birdie putts to force an 18-hole playoff with Mediate. Westwood's putt, which had a severe break to the right, was not successful. Woods' putt was closer at, with a much less severe break; his putt lipped the hole before dropping and putting him in the playoff. Both Woods and Mediate became the first to finish under par at the U.S. Open since 2004.
Heath Slocum shot the low round of the day at 65. In total, 12 players shot sub-par rounds and the scoring average for the round was 72.87 and 74.71 overall.
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo parMoney
T1Tiger Woods72-68-70-73=283−1Playoff
T1Rocco Mediate69-71-72-71=283−1Playoff
3Lee Westwood70-71-70-73=284E491,995
T4Robert Karlsson70-70-75-71=286+2307,303
T4D. J. Trahan72-69-73-72=286+2307,303
T6Carl Pettersson71-71-77-68=287+3220,686
T6John Merrick73-72-71-71=287+3220,686
T6Miguel Ángel Jiménez75-66-74-72=287+3220,686
T9Heath Slocum75-74-74-65=288+4160,769
T9Eric Axley69-79-71-69=288+4160,769
T9Brandt Snedeker76-73-68-71=288+4160,769
T9Camilo Villegas73-71-71-73=288+4160,769
T9Geoff Ogilvy69-73-72-74=288+4160,769

Amateurs: Thompson, Fowler, Fathauer.

Scorecard

Final round
Hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101112131415161718
Par443444435434544345
Woods−1EEEEEEE−1−1−2−2−1−1EEE−1
Mediate−1−2−2−2−1EEEE−1−1−1−1−2−1−1−1−1
Westwood−1−1−1−1−1−1−1−1−2−1−1E+1EEEEE
Karlsson+2+2+1+1+1+1+2+2+3+3+2+3+3+2+3+4+3+2
Trahan+2+3+3+4+5+5+4+3+3+3+2+2+1+1+1+2+3+2
Jiménez+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+4+4+5+5+6+5+4+4+4+3
Merrick+4+4+3+3+4+4+4+4+3+3+3+3+3+3+4+4+4+3
Pettersson+5+5+5+4+3+3+3+3+4+4+4+5+5+4+4+3+3+3
Ogilvy+1+1+1+2+1+1EE+1+2+2+2+2+2+2+3+4+4

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par
Source:

Playoff

Monday, June 16, 2008
The 18-hole playoff was the first playoff for the U.S. Open since 2001. After trading the lead three times on the front nine, Woods built a three stroke lead through ten holes. Mediate rallied on the back nine with three consecutive birdies which gave him a one stroke lead heading to the 18th hole. Like the day before, Woods birdied to tie Mediate and forced the playoff into sudden-death, the third in U.S. Open history.
The sudden-death playoff started and ended at the par-4 7th hole; Woods left his birdie putt inches short and tapped in, while Mediate's tee shot found the left fairway bunker and his putt to save par missed right.
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo parSudden
death		Money
1Tiger Woods71E41,350,000
2Rocco Mediate71E5810,000

The playoff started at noon Eastern on ESPN, with NBC taking over at 2 p.m. Eastern and showing the final ten holes; ESPN's two hours earned the highest ever ratings for golf coverage on cable at the time, while NBC had the highest-rated Monday golf broadcast since 1978.
With the win, Woods kept his unbeaten streak alive when he has at least a share of the lead heading into the final round of a major championship. The streak ended at the PGA Championship in 2009.

Scorecard

Woods' injury

Two months earlier on April 15, Woods had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee. During his rehab, Woods sustained a double stress fracture of his left tibia. Throughout the tournament it was clear Woods was in pain, and the general feeling was that he was just returning from the initial surgery too soon. He did not reveal the news about the fracture until Wednesday, two days after the Monday He had surgery to repair his anterior cruciate ligament and needed time to rehab that and the stress fracture, and announced on his website that he would miss the remainder of the 2008 season.